If you want to post a detailed review or impressions of NBA Live 16, by all means feel free to create your own thread. Not all impressions have to be posted here. However, this is a central thread for any quick impressions that you care to share and discuss, if you're looking for such a thread.

+ Player models (the majority they got right) on a new level for videogame standards+ Shooting feels very fun, quick and responsive and as good as it's been for a long time (not Live 10 standard though)+ Sliders and they seem to work+ Quicker loading, more responsive menus + Pro Am is a great addition, very addictive, lots of fun, mixes up the gameplay more than I expected+ Though toned down, the ragdoll physics are still impressive and create unique, seemingly automated contact animations, bumps on drives, falling into a player while landing from a jumper etc+ Some great passing animations, much more responsive than last year and the touch on passing works well+ The hand off animations look great, are unique to basketball videogames and work well to create space and movement+ Authentic plays, lots of convincing off the ball movement, now getting open rewards you + Great player to court size ratio, great floor spacing (probably as good as any bball has achieved)+ The courts, the stadium lighting, the audio and atmosphere are second to none+ Probably the best pick and roll control and fun I've had in a bball game. Lots of options, easy to execute

- 99% of the commentary is the same as 15- Too many players remain unscanned and look like dolls amongst the amazing photo realistic one's- The ball physics have taken a huge downgrade. Gone are most of the flawless animations for dribbling and suddenly we have gone back in time with a bunch of yo-yo and rubber band dribbles- Way too many silly/funky animations that make you cringe (hook shots, no look layups, two handed under/scoops, ugly automated behind the back dribbling)- The great looking and easy to control size-ups from 15 have been removed- The step backs from post ups from 15 have been removed- No post moves (other than a drop step, spin and hook that's it)- Again, we've gone back pre Live 10 in terms of jumpshot animations. Back then we used to have unique animations for fade left, fade right, fade back, runner/momentum forward - how has all of this been removed from 14, 15, 16?- No player editing; for example Joe Ingles in game is a right handed power forward (irl he is a lefty guard/forward), Allen Iverson (and other current players) needs a different jumpshot animation allocated - Still no manual roster editing, so yes if your favourite player goes down for the season you've just spent your money on a game that locks him away while injured- 2 patches in and the patch notes still read 'minor bug fixes' on your system. If we pay for a game we deserve to know what changes you are making to it

Very playable, very quick and intuitive to get into and a free flowing, unscripted and 'loose' style of basketball videogame that won't get rave reviews but will probably have it's best sales in 3 years and start to change some people's minds about the type of feel of gameplay they prefer. Lots of work to be done and I don't think it's unfair or feeling entitled to expect some big changes in 16 via patches. EA Sports not only owe their fans (like myself and many others) who have bought the game for 3 years straight now, but also to themselves to make 16 the best it can be. Don't wait till 17 for new face scans, make some progress of removing and replacing some of those funky animations now and add the size ups and step back post jumpers back in.

Live 16 is a mix between 10 and some of the more recent (not great) versions.

The best thing to do is download the demo and see what you think. If you haven't got it on PS4 or Xbox One yet it will download fresh with the patches and once the whole game is downloaded it gives you a bunch of teams to try in regular games and also the Pro-Am modes. Other than a few modes and the rest of the teams, you get the whole experience for free (then if you like it buy it digitally because the demo downloads the whole game).

Phreak50 wrote:My demo I had before the game and patch released has not updated. But I thought I read somewhere that a fresh download of the demo in the last few days was also downloading patches, so not sure.

It would be in EA's best interests to patch the demo and also doesn't make sense if it doesn't get patched because I thought it would need to be for demo players to play with full game owners?

Played my first real few games of the full version of live 16 just now at my mates (xbox) and I see the slight improvements to gameplay but it is very similar to live 15 which isn't totally a bad thing but there are a lot of the flaws from last year that haven't being updated that do ruin the experience for me myself but I won't dog on a game I played for just over an hour.

I noticed a lot more the robotic movement throughout the game and the thing that bugged me most about that is that everyone is doing it at the same time.

They still have to many bad cyber faces and rookies that llook nothing like there real life self for me to go out and buy it for the ps4 as I thought they were patching in the rookies on release day which was over a week ago.

I've spent a lot of time playing live 16 on the xbox this week and although I think the game is a good pick up and play for the common fan it really lacks the depth that you would expect from a basketball sim.

The gameplay has improved but the offensive play is king on the court with over powering, sliders a very welcomed but don't really help much to the defender.

Shooting is 100% improved but post play could do with a lot of work and I think that's where most of the bad stiff robotic movement comes from.

The graphics in general are on point with lighting/arenas a day 90 percent of the players but if there are players who haven't had there face scanned then they really stand out.

The commentary gets old quickly, there isn't really much difference from Live 15.

I do like the new play calling system but still lacks options leading to running a lot more pick and roll plays to get open.

I get there is a market for pro am but I think (and EA admitted) that everything else took a back seat this year which I think has really hurt it's sales this year and to be honest is why I haven't gone out and bought the game myself.

I intend to buy live 16 if I can get it cheap but until they improve dynasty mode and give us roster editing and full customization then they won't even really compete with 2k.

I maxed out the sliders, except the shooting, I left them still relatively high, just so I can see what an arcade type NBA Live 95 style. I think the game plays a bit better. I also see less clipping with them maxed out. Even with the high shooting sliders (between 50-70, 3pt is at 50) I can sometimes get the CPU (all-star right now) to shoot under 50 percent (48% in my last game). while I think it's good to mimic reality in terms of statistics, I think everyone should give it a try. You might also have fun with the game because it reminded me of old Lives from the Ps2, Gamecube, Xbox era. The game (TO ME) feels much looser and I can execute player movement much better also.

if you give it a try, post your results and experiences. It good to have different perspectives

So I've obviously talked about the game in the Forum and on the Podcast, and I'd still like to do a full review - either written, or as a video - but I thought I'd share some observations and impressions here, having played the game for more than a month now.

Good

Dribbling controls are the smoothest and most responsive they've been in a long time. A huge improvement on NBA Live 15.

Likewise, player movement on defense is far more responsive, nowhere near as clunky as it was in NBA Live 14 and NBA Live 15. With good anticipation, it's easier to stay with/in front of opponents.

For the most part, animations on the perimeter look really good, especially dribbling.

While I liked the automatic size-up moves in NBA Live 15, it's nice to be able to string together moves ourselves. I wouldn't be against the (somewhat canned) size-ups being brought back, but the current method is effective when you string together some ankle-breaking moves. It's just a shame we can't get players to fall down.

The shot meter is a huge improvement. I really prefer this approach to shooting; it's more responsive, it looks better, and the feedback is much better. Make or miss, I feel I know what went right, what went wrong, when I've taken a good shot, when I've taken a bad shot, when I've been lucky or unlucky.

It's great that we've got the shot meter on the free throws, too. In lieu of a different, more detailed method of shooting free throws, it's at least nice to get that feedback.

The new animations look good. It's good to see new ones being added to the game, and older, clunkier ones being phased out.

The controls remain simple and intuitive, and as I mentioned before, they've quite responsive this year, for the most part.

Pro-Am is a solid mode. Performance is pretty good online; there's a bit of lag playing here in Australia, but it's manageable. Following the patch, single player Pro-Am is working properly without any framerate issues.

Having two different "currencies" for upgrading your Rising Star/Pro-Am player and buying gear is a very welcome approach.

Sliders not only make a welcome return, but they're pleasingly effective. You can tell the difference when you make tweaks, so they're serving their function.

There's a lot more movement on offense, with players trying to get open and move to their spots. The CPU also seems to run plays more often this year. There's a lot less standing around in general, which is good to see.

I really like the on-court diagrams for running plays, as well as the quick play option. Running plays is also effective, so there's actually incentive to run them.

Expanded pick and roll controls are functional, and welcome.

It's good to see collisions on the perimeter, players fighting through screens, etc.

Plays are run in Rising Star, and teammate AI is improved, so you don't have to do everything yourself.

Overall, stadiums, backboards, and player faces - those that have been scanned - look great. Details like muscle movement are very impressive.

Face scanning works really well, and is much, much easier to use than NBA 2K's face scanning.

A couple of nice features have been added to Ultimate Team with the GM list objectives, more search options in the Auction House, and new challenges.

Shot distribution is pretty accurate, for the most part. Stars tend to take the most shots.

Some key bugs from NBA Live 15, such as disabled subs/timeouts for the CPU team when changing the setting to manual for the user, and not being able to draw charges on the CPU, have been fixed.

While I'm a fan of authentic broadcast camera angles, I do like the new gameplay oriented EA Action angle (reminds me of the classic camera angle, only it moves) and the adjusted baseline angle for Pro-Am.

Bad

The overall speed and pace of the game is too fast. The up-tempo style is a little too arcade-like, especially on longer quarter lengths. It'd be good to have a slider to control this, too.

While there are definitely sim elements with the playcalling and general approach, in execution the game still feels a bit arcade-like, with the aforementioned up-tempo pace, field goal percentages, and drive-and-dunk game.

The CPU often feels a bit cheap, especially on the higher difficulty levels. Instead of playing smarter, it seems they just knock down more shots (contested or otherwise) while the user blows a lot of easy ones.

There are still some very awkward and clunky looking animations in the game, particularly in the paint and around the hoop. These need to be phased out a bit quicker, and replaced with more realistic looking animations.

On the subject of the paint game, it's very limited. What's there is functional and works well enough, but there's not a lot of depth to the moves that are available. The game needs more moves, and greater control over them. The paint game is still mostly just dunks and layups.

CPU opponents are able to waltz into the paint far too easily. Part of this is due to CPU teammate AI; quite often, they'll step aside and leave a clear path to the hoop. The CPU also seems to rocket to the hoop a bit too easily though, leading to too many points inside.

Still on defensive AI, CPU teammates also seem very prone to leaving jumpshooters open, or losing their way on defense, leading to defensive three second violations.

While the controls are responsive in general, rebounding/blocking can be problematic. It's not that it doesn't work at all, but there are times when it feels less responsive than it should. It seems a similar issue to the dribbling controls in NBA Live 14 and NBA Live 15, where trying to get the footplanting right is messing up the responsiveness.

Although the offensive rebounding numbers aren't skewed badly, the CPU does seem to have a tendency to get its own offensive boards a bit too easily, and score some cheap buckets as a result.

The lack of custom rosters really hurts, as it's a long-time staple of sports games. With once-a-week official roster updates, we really needed to be able to make our own updates.

Similarly, Dynasty Mode needed to receive some more attention. Granted, it wasn't the focus this year, but there are some basic things like changing jersey numbers, viewing transactions, and other features that are still missing for the third year in a row.

Rising Star also needs more depth, with some of the same stats screens as Dynasty Mode. It also needs a few bells and whistles to really be an immersive experience.

Ultimate Team is missing some basic functionality as far as managing lineups, such as rotation/minutes, and the ability to save multiple pre-set lineups to easily swap players in and out (eg main line-up, retro line-up, all-gold/silver/bronze, etc).

While the controls are functional, intuitive, and for the most part responsive - as noted under the "Good" section - they're also a bit lacking. In addition to more post moves (on both sides of the ball), the game needs manual control over elements such as bounce passes, diving for loose balls, bank shots, and floaters.

Collisions still need improvement, especially in the paint. Specifically, collisions need to look better (especially when players are hit hard and fouled on drives and jumpshots), and there needs to be more of them. I think the lack of physicality in the game leads to some of the more arcade-like elements.

The lack of injuries means an unfortunate but real aspect of the sport isn't represented, removing the risk/reward factor from reckless drives, and removing a potential challenge from Dynasty Mode.

Commentary is still kind of hit and miss, and definitely needs some new material. In general, there are a few too many dead spots.

After avoiding it in NBA Live 14 and NBA Live 15, the PAL/European version of NBA Live 16 uses the metric system for player heights and weights. Even though that's the system I'm familiar with, it looks out of place in an NBA game, and detracts from the presentation.

Lack of some basic functionality in stats screens, such as being able to view quarter-by-quarter stats in the boxscores, or bring up the Player of the Game following the post-game show.

While they can obviously be fixed with content updates, as it stands, generic faces for some of the rookies do detract from the overall presentation.

Some of the animations when bringing the ball up the court after the inbounds (dribbling behind the back, long "push" dribble, etc) look a bit strange and feel a bit canned.

While it's good that steals have been toned down, it feels a bit artificial with ballhandlers performing a canned behind the back dribble or other move on a failed steal attempt. There should probably be more reach-in fouls.

Stray Observations

A common theme is that when something looks good or works well, it looks really good and works really well. However, when it doesn't look good or work well, it looks or feels pretty bad. To put it another way: when something's good, it really shines, but when something's bad, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

While NBA Live 16 isn't quite as sim as I'd like, it's still kind of fun, thanks to Pro-Am and Ultimate Team. While it's problematic, I also feel that a significant content/tuning/bug fix update could greatly improve it, and the basic foundation/building blocks are there for a better NBA sim experience than it currently delivers. The depth of the game modes is a problem though, one that probably won't be resolved until NBA Live 17.

I can't really file it under "bad" because it's personal preference, but for what it's worth, I preferred the approach of listing teams alphabetically by city/location, rather than team name (as 2K does). It's the way NBA Live has always done things (by city), so it's a bit of a jarring change.

As I mentioned above, we can perform some nifty dribbling moves with the controls this year. However, it's be nice to see defenders really stumble and fall down when their ankles are broken.

Are rim stuffs in the game? I've seen dunks get deflected at the rim and they look nice, but I'd also like to see some blown dunks...the frequency being controlled by a slider, of course.

Finally got some real time to play both games over the last few days and as much as I wanted to use the post trade deadline rosters more (2k) I found myself getting into rage quits vs the cpu by losing the ball because apparently nba players can't dribble and love the fast break or backdoor cuts as there number one option....

So I've just spent hours (and really enjoying) live 16 again, even playing and getting trashed by the Warriors game had a good feel to it.

I wish the Dev team would tone down the inside scoring, even with the sliders for the respective fields set to zero Layups and hook shots go in more or less at a 90% rate even on superstar and I really don't like that post back to the basket fade away that looks like the player just jumps forward and shots the ball over there head which is always money

I agree, both games need a bit of tuning in that regard, from opposite ends of the scale. Sliders can help - sometimes - but beyond any problems with slider effectiveness, it's a moot point in modes where you can't adjust sliders at all, such as each game's team building, pro-am, and single player career modes.

As it happened, I played a full Tip Off game of NBA Live 16 yesterday, to get a few screenshots for an article. At this point, the game feels a lot better than it did at launch, and I can still see a lot of potential in it. There's a ways to go, but I hope that the extra development time for NBA Live 17 does pay off, and that the console platform isn't abandoned as has been speculated.

[Q] wrote:But then again NBA players shouldn't miss wide open fast break layups like in 2k

Totally agree Q, Live does do some things better than 2k and dribbling and not missing wide open Layups are part of it my gripe is more that is that if I want to get easy points I can post up with anyone and use the up and under or post shot which goes in 90%of the time.

It comes down to balance. It's hard to make a game feel like it's never screwing you over when you miss an inside shot, but it's frustrating when the CPU is waltzing into the paint and finishing with ease, while layup after layup rolls off the rim for the user. It needs to feel fair. At the same time, if you want a sim game, it needs to be easier to score inside, but not a guaranteed bucket; that can be a tough pill to swallow for gamers, because we're used to being rewarded for doing everything right in video games, and a realistic basketball game will reflect the phenomenon of doing everything right, but still coming up empty.

Sure, like the Brandon Knight game winner but they should be like super rare. That pissed me off so much in 2K7 when I'd play good defense and brick a wide open layup with no defenders in the areaThat's the stuff that drives players to play cheese lol

A bit late to the party, but I was recently sick and had Live 16 bought since it was in some kind of a discount. So I finally got around to try it our.

Played mainly Rising Star and I liked a lot about it. Gameplay leaves a lot to be desired (defense mainly), true, but overall it felt somewhat arcade-y, though not bad overall. I'd compare it to 2K11 maybe? I don't think it's necessarily bad to have more arcade gameplay.But what I liked was character progression. Skills upgraded with one currency, that is earned by performing well, while other stuff (cosmetics) are purchased with other. No microtransactions (or at least I saw none).And you know what? I could select body type for my player. Something I have no idea why we can't do in 2K.

I also liked player models and faces.

Overall, I hope the next NBA Live (will it be 17? 18? maybe just Live?) will be improved a lot thanks to the extended development. While NBA 2K is pretty good, we (consumers) can only benefit from competition.

Well it looks live 16 messed up the trade restrictions (salary cap), with live 15 I could start up a dynasty, switch off the trade restrictions and redone the rosters the best way I could but now the cpu has too much say on trades and wouldn't let me do half the trades I wanted too unlike last year so unless iam missing something I could be officially done with Live 16.